toward a better future
by saunatonttu
Summary: His fight with his past is over now. What's there left to do? Slight LawNa if you squint.


**A/N: **hahaha, how has it been, OP fandom? It's been forever since I have even attempted to write anything here. And naturally now that I have done it again, it's for a tiny pairing. Of course.

Also, dang the new chapter, am I right?

This might contain some spoilers, but none that are explicitly worded.

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**toward a better future**

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Law did not view himself as a man worthy of love; not at this point, not after each and every person he had cared for had died in the most merciless ways possible — disease and murder.

His heart, crippled and wounded beyond recognition, he had abandoned by the makeshift grave for Corazon; the seeds of revenge had already grown and hatred had taken him in as its foster son.

Hatred had, Law knew, made him stronger — but ultimately weak at the same time.

He had closed himself from the world when the anger had become too much — luckily he had companions: Bepo, Penguin, Shachi and others that could deal with the blackest of his days, their silent understanding a pleasure Law hadn't had since Cora-san.

Yet, he found himself unworthy, and that hollow feeling followed him all the way to Dressrosa where he confronted his past for once and for all, and this time he came out as a victor, if only barely and with bruises and bitemarks etched deeply into himself where others could not see.

Now, at Zou, Law had withdrawn into himself, tired both physically and mentally, and while seeing his own nakama made him feel better and more at ease, the persistent aching of old wounds remained.

Perhaps he should have expected so; he had never forgotten the past, not for a moment, butconting it the way he had was not only drastic but also mentally exhausting.

Which was another reason as to why he found the Straw Hats' exuberant behaviour so unbearable currently — but he had not kicked up a fuss about the celebration when the Straw Hat had suggested it. It was something he knew _his_ own crew could do with, as well, after a long time of separation from their captain.

And, well, let them have a taste of what Law has been put through with his allies.

He was staring at the ocean, the wide blue opening before his eyes, blankly and unseeingly, mind drifting off into its own dimensions while both crews of the alliance partied like the world would end if they didn't.

"Tra-guy?"

He didn't jump; he merely twitched in surprise, most of his movements still restrained by the bandages wrapped around him by the Straw Hat's doctor, Tony-ya.

Her golden-orange hair flowed down to her shoulders, wild and free like the woman herself, and Law only gave her a vague look before turning back to watch the sea. "Nami-ya," he replied at length, stiff and reserved as he had been in the beginning with the crew.

But there was no real desire to keep himself away from the eccentric crew anymore.

He was just _so_ **so** tired.

"I thought you were busy drinking the Pirate Hunter-ya down," Law added absently, his eyes staring unseeingly at the wide horizon.

Nami made a 'pssh' sound, her lips in a grin that probably would have brought even more memories up if he had looked at it right then. "Nah, he owes me enough money as it is anyway. I can already get some more from him via extortion if I must."

"What's up with you, though, Tra-guy? Luffy's been pouty since you're not celebrating with him."

Law's lips curved up without him willing the movement. "I'm still injured, Nami-ya; surely that's reason enough for me to withdraw from any excessive drinking and partyng for the time being." It sounded like something a doctor would say. It certainly was something the Straw Hat's doctor could have said.

Yet, Nami didn't buy it, and he could tell from the lapse of silence that passed between them.

"Look," she leaned over the railing, taking up the space next to him. "I heard from Luffy a bit about your past. Not much, since Luffy's an idiot and _never_ really pays attention to the important stuff." She laughed, strangely fondly despite the harshness of her words, but Law had come to expect that from this crew. And from her.

"It's not important anymore," Law rasped, the tender wounds that were more in his head than his head aching terribly. "He and I finished it. It's over." _I am free,_ he wanted to say. _From revenge. Not the hatred and resentment itself, but those will fade in time with Doflamingo gone._

The sensation was strange — the shackles of the past had wound around him so tightly that now that he was able to breathe again, he felt as though he was choking.

She looked at him; he felt her stare burning on his skin, and he had to take a breath — a rare occasion of self-consciousness.

"It's not easy, you know," she mused, her voice more tender than he had heard it before. "Moving on from the past that choked you up until you felt like you were not even alive anymore." Her hand touched his arm tentatively, touchingly hesitant on whether it was alright.

He allowed the contact wordlessly. "You got some experience ion that area, Nami-ya?" he asked wearily, his shoulders slumping as the former tension was now leaving his body, which was still too tired to have him move around too much.

"Yeah, I do," she said unashamedly and unafraid, and Law turned to look at her fully now. She face the ocean, her lips curved up in a sad little smile Law thought mirrored his own previous expression quite well.

"That's why I think you should come down to party with us, Law," she added, softly, her tangarine hair saying as her head turned and she looked at him with her warm amber eyes. Warm enough to melt a little more of the glacier Law had once placed his own hear into.

The slip of his first name from her lips made him halt. It seemed out-of-picture, somehow, just like the look on her face and the way she alluded to her own past troubles.

This crew was just full of people that Law would either grow to respect or never understand.

The Straw Hat was, unfortunately, in both groups already, but as far as the navigator went…

He relaxed, a cracked smile blooming on his lips that had not smiled much since his childhood.

"Very well, Nami-ya. Lead the way."

And if her hand wrapped around his own made his face flush, he chose to not acknowledge it as she tugged him with her towards the roaring sea of laughter and emotions very far from Law's detached ones.


End file.
